When to Stop Driving: Who Decides and How?

Such a difficult conversation. Children worry. Elders worry and defend. A great web page called Tech-enhanced Life just wrote an article about this. The full article is here. I have a couple of things to add.

This topic raises the following issues:

  • “this is a complex topic, involving feelings of self-worth and independence;

  • older adults themselves have differing views on this, although they fall largely into a handful of categories;

  • the logical government entities you might imagine would be handling this, by and large, are not; and

  • while the internet is full of articles on topics like: "How to stop elderly parents from driving", the older adults in our Longevity Explorer circles see things differently than do the writers of most of those articles.

  • the questions of How to Decide, and Who should Decide are deeply intertwined.”

I add that public transportation leaves much to be desired. Also know that once a person has been diagnosed with a neurological disease their car insurance may challenge any claims. Check with your insurance company. In the area that I serve the options that my families have included:

The article asks the important question of who should make the decision. For families that can’t easily make the decision the very good (but private pay) evaluator is Easter Seals.

If you have questions or challenges you can call or write me at any time.

Marcie

Marcie Dimenstein